James Carter Cathcart, better known as Jimmy Zoppi (born March 8, 1954 in West Long Branch, New Jersey), sometimes credited as Billy Beach and his birth, is an American bassist, pianist, vocalist, and actor. He has been playing with bands since high school and has been a bassist and vocalist of the Carter Cathcart Band since 1981, and is also a pianist. Zoppi's first voiceover part was O.G. Readmore on the ABC Weekend Special. After that, he recorded voice overs for Kit Kat candy bars, Good Humor, Coors Light, and others. Jimmy Zoppi later auditioned and got several roles in the then-unknown
Pokémon series. This includes Gary Oak, James (after
Ted Lewis &
Eric Stuart), Butch, Meowth (after Nathan Price &
Maddie Blaustein), and Professor Oak (after Stuart Zagnit). He has since become known for a prolific amount of anime dub voice work for
Central Park Media,
Media Blasters, DuArt Film and Video, TAJ Productions, and once had multiple roles in many shows from
4Kids Entertainment. This included the role of Vector in
Sonic X and
Shadow the Hedgehog (utilizing a substantially different voice after his initial appearance in Sonic X, as well as being credited under a different name, led to being confused for a new actor; he was later actually replaced by
Dan Green in
Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games). After continuing on with TAJ's dub of
Pokémon, he didn't have anymore roles in any 4Kids productions prior to their demise.
His Dallas equivalent is Sonny Strait.
He announced his retirement on 19 April 2023, which is due to throat cancer. [1]
Notable roles from Jimmy Zoppi:
